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Announcing the White House's Second Annual Civic Hackathon

On May 29, the White House will welcome developers and tech experts to the White House for an all-day (civic) hackathon.

May 31 kicks off the second annual National Day of Civic Hacking. It’s a day for civic activists, technology experts, and entrepreneurs around the country to combine their expertise with new technologies and publicly released data to build tools that help others in their own neighborhoods and across the United States.

We can’t wait to take part, which is why we're inviting developers and tech experts to the White House for an all-day (civic) hackathon on May 29.

Last year we hosted 30 participants who built apps and visualizations based on the new Petitions API for We the People -- the White House petitions system (check out some of those projects here). Feedback from the participants helped improve the API, and we’re adding code from their projects to a software development kit (SDK) to help others who want to start using the API too.

The focus of this year’s National Day of Civic Hacking event? Our Petitions Write API, which is currently in beta testing, and will help even more Americans make their voices heard -- allowing them to use the platform of their choice to reach the White House.

Participants will focus on building out new ways of signing petitions, shaking loose any bugs, and collaborating on ways to improve the API and We the People in general.

If you have the skills necessary to work with APIs and especially if you’ve developed on petitions platforms before, we want to hear from you.

The deadline for applications is 5:00 pm ET on Friday, May 9. Capacity is limited. Those selected to attend the hackathon in person will be notified by email and invited to join us at the White House on May 29.